Bombs go off in London,
Stirring panic's rhythmic creep,
The city turns its shoulders,
Smooths the cracks and tries to sleep
And split the Gulf sky red,
As the oil fields start to blow,
And weep a heavy storm of black, black rain
Onto the earth below
And the millions cried "Sweet Mary",
A million more cried tears of shame,
When they saw what they had done in the name of all of their hopes and fears,
When they realised what they became
In hidden Eastern passes,
That defenders will not yield
To a soldier from the Edgware Road
Come to burn the poppy fields
And the millions cried "Sweet Mary",
A million more cried tears of shame,
When they saw what they had done in the name of all of their hopes and fears
When they realised what they became
Behold a pale rider, new war partisan,
Twenty years still with the desert dust,
Slipping slowly through his hands
And from the Water Margins,
To Death Row, Guantanamo,
You can hear that King's Cross countdown,
As the detonators blow
And the millions cried "Sweet Mary",
A million more cried tears of shame,
When they saw what they had done in the name of all of their hopes and fears
When they realised what they became
Behold a pale rider, new war partisan,
Twenty years still with the desert dust,
Slipping slowly through his hands